Engine



E. A. SPERRY April 26, 1932.

ENGINE Filed May 9, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet [Twat momm L.

TRRNSF 'R PORT IN CYLINDER rams r." compressmnr. Expan slam, T fi INVENTOR V 5mg? /5.5PHHY.

A ril 26, 1932. E. A. SPERRY 1,855,929

ENGINE Filed May 9, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HIJIH lilllllll ll ATTORNEY.

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Patented Apr. 26, 1932 ELMER A. S?ERRY, 'OF BRQQKLYN, N W Yon-K, Assidivon TO srERRY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, OF DOVER, DELAWARE, A coEroEA'rIoN OF DELAWARE meme 1 Appliance meanest, 1928; Serial No. 276,212.

This invention relates toengines ofthe" kind employing cylinders and pistons operate ing insaid cylinders with means for draw ing in and exhaustinggaseousproducts.- The inventionis described more particularly in connection-with internal combustion engil'ies of the so-ealled Diesel type. It has here tofore been proposed to control the induction and exhaust in internal combustion engines" 1d andsnnilar machineshy LMlllZ'lIlg-fl sleeve lnterp'osed between the piston and the cylin V derwal-l, said sleeve hav'ing a port adapted to register with corresponding ports in the cylinder wall. It has further been proposed lu 'to' operate said sleeve by a combined recipieeating and oscillating movement so asto in1- part a substantial elliptidmotionto said sleeve, or alternatively to use continuous ro cation with reciprocation oi the sleeve; It isone of the objects of my'invention, tl'rer'e fore, to provide'a sleeve of the type described capable of extremely rapid operation with sharp opening and closing of the ports" and" consequently permitting the use of a larger M'port opening for a given diameter of cylinder. All 0t these'objects I am enabled to ac'conr plish by providing a properlyproportioned combined reciprocating" and rotary motion forcontinuous rotation of said sleeve in con'-' instead of merely oscillating the same.

It is a further object of my inventionto provide in connection 1 with a sleeve valve type engine a meansfor setting-"up anl n tensely turbulent swirl within the cylinder persisting to the pointof fuel injection andbeyond. The desirability of setting Iupsuch a swirl is well recognized inthis art, especiallyin connection with types ofen'gines adapted: to employ what is known as so1id fuel in jGCtlOIlyWl'llCll means'that'the fuel isinjected" inth'e-fornr of a liqui'd spray rather thancmn mingled with air or in avaporized' condition: The extent to" which such fuel will be ef- E-ficient ly utilized depends in" great measure uponthe rapidity and" thoroughness with which it is admixed with the oxygen of the air. Intense turbulence of air ected under 7 high pressure"performs this functi n. I have found that the principle-0f creatin'g turbu junction with the reciprocat'ory moven'i'en't" lence ofthe air within a sleeve valve type'en gine applies equallywell to the form of sueh engine in which th e' sleeve rotates througli out entire revolutions as to that type" of engine wherein Inerelyan elliptical ore uivalent motion is applied to the slevo'r sleeves.

It is a further obj ectof'my invention not only to set up an intense, swirlhut to itvide'thatsuch swirl shall take place a out the cylinder axis,- in which case I have found 6 that the swirl continues not biiIythrOiiQllOut' the induction stroke but throughout the'coiiP pressi'on stroke to the point of fuel injee tion and also theexptinsiofi snort-send 'duf ing" transfer from tl'iehigh pressure cylinder i to the low pressure cylinder, which'in the conrpound'engi-ne constitutesa part ofthe true combustion eriod. 7 p

I have further found that the plrenoirfenoii' of intense" turbulence or swirl is greatly 6- facilitated by: injectingthe compressed air tangentially to the cylinder and the'i-otati ng sleeve; and in a direction opposite to the di'- rection of the rotational movement of the sleeve. This applies not onlytotl'rerotating sleeve but to the oscillating type of sleeve as well." v v V It is a further object oflmy invention to provide means for suitably fpreeornpressi'ng the air to a pressure of several atmospheres Fi 2 is an enlarged detail View, wheeparts-sectioned verticiilly; of a portionbf' the driving mechanism show-11in 'Fig ;-1-. j I

Fig. 3 is a plan View bfthestrueture shown inFi'g'; 2.

Fig; 4 is'a-vertieal'section'tlirougliesleeve16d showing a modified driving mechanism for imparting oscillatory, longitudinal and rotary motion thereto.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the Fig. 4 mechanism.

Fig. 6 is a development diagram showing the co-action of the sleeve port with the cylinder ports.

Fig. 7 is a vertical section through the air induction source and the cyhnder With which one provided with twohigh pressure cylinders 10 adapted to exhaust into a low pressure cylinder 11. In each of the high pressure cylinders operates a piston P and in the low pressure cylinder a piston P. Fuel may be injected in the high pressure cylinder through fuel valves V, which inject fuel through the high pressure cylinder heads H into the high pressure cylinders. Air may be forced in through the air induction ports V and the products of combustion discharge through transfer valves T into the low pressure cylinder. All of said pistons are operated from the crank shaft S.

sure cylinder 10 I interpose a sleeve 20 for controlling both the air intake ports V," and the transfer ports T. In accordance with the purpose of my invention hereinbefore set forth, I intend to impart to said sleeves a continuous rotation compounded with a reciprocatory movement. For imparting a continuous rotation to said sleeves, I may form the lower end of each sleeve with an annular gear 21 adapted to mesh with a pinion 22, said pinion being driven from the shaft S by suitable gearing, as for instance, the gearing 23, 24:, 25, 26, the last-named gear being mounted on a spline member 27 upon which gear 22 is splined for axial movement, but is constrained to rotate therewith continuously.

In Fig. 16 I have shown an alternative and much simplified form wherein the spline shown in Fig. 2 at 27 may be enlarged as shown at 27 to become the pinion itself, meshing directly with gear 21, thus doing away with the intermediate pinion 22. This latter is the preferred form.

For reciprocating said sleeves at the same time that they are-rotated continuously, I may Between each piston P and the high presformed by gears 21 and 22 adjacent its lower surface. Also ring 32 is constrained to move axially with the sleeve, and gear 22 is constrained to move axially with ring 32, so that gears 21 and 22 operate axially in fixed relation toeach other.

From the above description it will be seen that as shaft S rotates continuously, crank 30 moves up and down to move ring 32, and hence the entire sleeve, up and down, while at the same time pinion 22 is continuously rotating gear 21. The fact that ring 32 is journalled on said sleeve makes possible the continuous rotation of said sleeve irrespective of the reciprocation, while the fact that pinion 22 is splined upon shaft 27 makes possible the continuous reciprocation of the sleeve and pinion 22 in fixed relation thereto irre spective of the continuous rotation of said sleeve, or in Fig. 16 the gear teeth 21 simply slide up and down on the elongated pinion 27. The sleeve with which each high pres sure cylinder is provided has a port L which throughout each revolution will co-act alternatively with the air induction port V and the transfer port T in the cylinder. The diagrammatic development of this is shown in Fig. 6. 7

Figs. 10 to 15 inclusive show diagrammatically the position of the cylinder ports, that is, the air inlet and exhaust ports V and 'I respectively relative to the position of the sleeve port L. The relative positions of the high pressure, low pressure, and pump pistons are also shown, the second high pressure cylinder and piston having been omitted since its position is the same as the high pressure piston shown, except that it is 360 degrees apart in the cycle of operation. The titles written upon these figures render them self-explanatory.

Driven from the shaft I have shown a precompression pump M for precompressing the air supplied to the air induction port of the high pressure cylinders. This air may be stored within a reservoir R positioned between the said pump and the air induction port ready for use as soon as the sleeve port uncovers the air induction port.

Referring to Fig. 7, it will become apparent that I have positioned the air inlet nozzle 50, leading from the air storage reservoir R to the air induction port in the cylinder wall, in such position that the air injected through said induction port, when the sleeve port un- {with different kinds of l. reely rotating covers the same, will have a direction tangential to the said sleeve and cylinder as indicated by the arrow A. The air being under substantial pressure, due to the precompression by pump M and being injected in a direction tangential to the sleeve and cylinder, will set up a turbulence or swirl of great velocity in a plane substantially normal to the cylinder axis. Such a turbulence has been found highly effective in efiiciently intermin ling the said air with the fuel jets, since such air goes across the entire plane of said jets as will be apparent from an inspection of Figs. 8 and 9. The said turbulence goes forward after combustion during the power stroke of the high pressure cylinder, continuing even after the transfer valve between the high and low pressure cylinders has been opened, and goes forward in the low pressure cylinder itself. Thorough combustion of even a low grade of fuel is thus rendered certain. I have found further that this turbulence or swirl is rendered even more highly effective when the direction of said swirl is opposite to that of the sleeve. Thus, referring to Fig. 7, if the sleeve rotates in the direction of arrow B, I have obtained highly effective results due to an intense degree of turbulence by injecting the air tangentially in the direction of arr-ow A, that is, in a direction opposite to the rotation of the sleeve. The whole object of the turbulence is to secure it to a hi h degree at the time of fuel injection, which occurs at the end of the compression stroke and also during the next two strohes. This turbulence originates during the induction stroke and it is, therefore, essential to have the gases very highly energized during this part of the cycle so that vigorous turbulence will persist throughout the whole 720. If the jet velocity at the top of jet 50 were between 300 and 400 ft. per sec. due to the contraction of the nozzle at this point, and the cylinder were 1 ft. in circumference, then we would have between 18,000 and 24,000 E. P. M. of the gases at the center of the mass moment during the induction stroke. Figs. 8 and 9 show the solid injection being projected so as to encounter this swirling mass the point of its greatest mass moment. The interesting point is that it is found that about three-fourthsof this amount still persists at the termination of the compression stroke and at the moment of fuel injection. It is also interesting to note that one-third of this amount has been found to exist at the last portion of the transfer stroke, or virtually 720 from the opening of the induct-ion port. has been conducted An elaborate research weight vanes actually present in this combustion space with a sealed extension on top of the cylinder whereby the exact revolutions could be read, and by using a shutter this reading was confined to nine progressive but separate positions throughout the cycle so that. very complete knowledge ofthe quite remarkablepersistence of this swirling and its extremely high values has become known.

The above principle of setting up swirl and turbulence may be applied also to the oscillating-sleeve type of engine as well as to the rotating sleeve type. Thus, in Figs. 4 and 5, I have shown a known form of oscillating a sleeve, that is, by imparting a combined reciprocatory and oscillatory movement thereto so that a point on the sleeve traces a substantially elliptic course. This is efi'ected by means such as a crank pin 60 eccentrically positioned on a disc 61 driven from the shaft S by suitable gearing, said pin having a universal connection with the sleeve. Since the sleeve is c-onstrainedto move about its axis it will be seen that rotation of disc 61will cause pin 60 to impart not only a r-eciprocatory but also an oscillatory movement to the sleeve. As the sleeve in this form oscillates first in one direction and then in the other, I have found that by causing the air to be injected tangentially to the sleeve when the said sleeve is moving in the direction opposite to the direction of the air that the best condition for turbulence is obtained.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have herein described the principle and operation of my invention, to gether with the apparatus which I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means. Also, w iile it is designed to use the various features and elements in the combination and relations described, some of these may be altered and others omitted without interfering with the more general results outlined, and the invention extends to such use.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: I

1. In an engine having a cylinder and a piston, there being a port in the cylinder wall, a sleeve interposed between said piston and said cylinder and having a port, and means for continuously rotating said sleeve to bring said ports into and out of cooperative relation, said. cylinder wallport constituting a duct tangentially direct to said cylinder and said sleeve, the said direction being opposite to the rotary motion of the sleeve.

2. In an engine having a cylinder and a piston, there being a port in the cylinder wall, a sleeve interposed between said piston and said cylinder and having a port, and means for simultaneously imparting reciprocatory and rotary motion to said sleeve to bring said ports into and out of cooperative relation, there being two reciprocatory movements to one of rotation.

3. In a combustion engine having a oylinder and a piston, there being an induction port and an exhaust port in the cylinder Wall, a single sleeve between said piston and said cylinder, and means for imparting simultaneous rotary and axial movement to said sleeve, said sleeve having a port adapted to register with the induction port by the major act of rotation and with the other cylinder port by the major act of axial movement of said sleeve, said induction port being in the form of a nozzle tangentially disposed with respect to said cylinder and pointing in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of said sleeve which opens said port.

4;. In a combustion engine having a cylinder and a piston, there being an induction port and an exhaust port in the cylinder wall, a single sleeve between said piston and said cylinder, means for imparting simultaneous rotary and axial movement to said sleeve, said sleeve having a port adapted to register with one cylinder port by the major act of rotation and with the other cylinder port by the major act of axial movement of said sleeve, said induction port being in the form of a nozzle tangentially disposed with respect to said cylinder and pointing in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of said sleeve, and means for delivering air at super-atmospheric pressure to said nozzle.

5. In a combustion engine having a cylinder and a piston, there being an induction port and an exhaust port in the cylinder wall a single sleeve between said piston and sai cylinder, means for imparting simultaneous rotary and axial movement to said sleeve, said sleeve having a port adapted to register with one cylinder port by the major act of rotation and with the other cylinder port by the major act of axial movement of said sleeve, said induction port being in the form of a nozzle tangentially disposed with respect to said cylinder and pointing in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of said sleeve, means for delivering air at super-atmospheric pressure to said nozzle during the induction stroke of said piston, and a reservoir for said compressed air located between said lastnamed means and said nozzle.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

ELMER A. SPERRY. 

